I was at this game, and at this game, and at this game. Geez – a 3 hour 50 minute game! That coupled with the fireworks afterwards led to some huge traffic clogs afterwards. Since I’m writing this a few days after the fact, I’m not going to comment on the game much, but I will comment on some of the other things that happened.
My wife and I have attended the several July 4th games – they’re always a big deal for the both of us. During the pre-game ceremonies, they brought out the latest batch of Air Force cadets, and they were sworn in on field. That, coupled with the “July 4th” feeling, and the honor guard with the flag, and everyone else there is an awesome feeling for me personally. Then they hit us with the song God Bless the USA by Lee Greenwood, and I just end up crying.
However, the most entertaining thing of the night had to be the marriage proposals. You know, the thing where some guy proposes to a woman on the Jumbotron. Well, they had one of those at this game. I’m always the guy who stands there shouting “No – don’t do it – Save yourself!” I personally don’t like these things, I think they’re trite. Well, a few innings after that, there was another one. And this one was awesome. The woman shook her hands no, tossed her coke on the guy and started to run away. The guy followed her, and they disappeared down a tunnel. Well, that got a lot of laughs, and shocked reactions from the folks in the crowd. The day after, I called Chuck Morgan (the PA and entertainment guy for the Rangers), and asked him about it. To make a long story short, it was a setup. Chuck said that they’ve been doing these things for a long time, and that the Rangers get like 30 or 40 requests a day to do something like that. He said he’d been threatening to do a fake one for a long time, and tonight he did it. He also told me that the two kids involved were interns at the Ballpark.
The fake marriage proposal was one of the funniest things I’ve seen at a ballgame in quite some time – and this was before I found out it was a fake in the first place. :)